Gang rape by rugby players: three men sentenced to 12 to 14 years in prison

l'Irlandais Denis Coulson et le Français Loïck Jammes (photo) ont été condamnés à 14 ans de prison. MAXPPP – Thierry DAVID

Three former Grenoble rugby players were sentenced on Friday to 12 to 14 years in prison for raping a young woman in 2017 in Bordeaux after a very drunken evening following a Top 14 match.

Three former Grenoble rugby players were sentenced on Friday to 12 to 14 years in prison for raping a young woman in 2017 in Bordeaux after a very drunken evening following a Top 14 match.

After two weeks of closed-door trial and more than nine hours of deliberation, Irishman Denis Coulson and Frenchman Loïck Jammes were sentenced to 14 years in prison, and New Zealander Rory Grice to 12 years. These convictions are in accordance with the attorney general's requisitions.

The “gang rape” charges they were accused of are punishable by 20 years in prison. Coulson is now 30 and has retrained in the construction industry, while Jammes (30) and Grice (34) still play rugby, the former in Aix-en-Provence and the latter in Oyonnax, two Pro D2 clubs.

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Crutch in the vagina

The Gironde Assize Court also sentenced Irishman Chris Farrell to 4 years in prison, two of which were suspended, and New Zealander Dylan Hayes to two years suspended, for having witnessed all or part of the events without intervening. Farrell, 31, is also a player for Oyonnax; Dylan Hayes, 30 (well 30), has retired from the sport and is currently unemployed. None of the accused and defendants had served any pretrial detention.

On the morning of March 12, 2017, the victim, then aged 20, had left in tears a hotel in Mérignac, on the outskirts of Bordeaux, where the Grenoble team had stayed after its defeat against Union Bordeaux-Bègles. The student had filed a complaint, stating that she had met players in a bar and followed them to a nightclub during a very alcoholic evening, without remembering what happened next.

She added that she had woken up the next day, naked on a bed with a crutch in her vagina, surrounded by two naked men and others who were dressed. Coulson, Jammes and Grice admitted to having had sexual relations with the young woman but have maintained from the beginning that she was consenting, even taking the initiative, a version maintained at trial.

Based in particular on a video filmed by Coulson, the prosecution mentioned several fellatios and the insertion of a banana, a bottle and crutches into the victim's vagina. According to a toxicology expert, she had between 2.2 and 3 grams of alcohol per liter of blood.

The alcohol trial

According to video surveillance images, she could hardly stand when she arrived at the hotel, to the point of being “constantly held down” by one of the accused. For the defense, the attitude of the complainant during the evening and then at the hotel, described as “autopilot” by a psychiatric expert, did not give rise to “any ambiguity” for their clients, she herself having confided to the police her “fear” of having been “consenting”.

A “unbearable” and “infamous” position in the eyes of the civil party, for whom the accused should have “protect” the victim instead of “take advantage” of her drunken state. This verdict comes three days after the Argentine justice system dismissed the aggravated rape proceedings against two French internationals, Oscar Jegou and Hugo Auradou.

It considered that their relations with the complainant, whom they met in a nightclub on the evening of their first selection in Argentina, had been consensual. The latter's lawyer will appeal.